- Asked by: Sarah Boyack, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to ensure that Scotland will remain at net zero emissions, should it achieve its legal target by 2045, in light of reports of inefficient heating measures in traditionally built homes.
Answer
My recent statement to Parliament confirmed that we intend to introduce a Heat in Buildings Bill in Year 5 of this Parliamentary session. This will create a target for decarbonising heating systems by 2045, and send a strong signal to homeowners, landlords and other building owners on the need to prepare for change.
We know that certain types of buildings might be more challenging to decarbonise, such as traditional and protected properties, for example. We will therefore ensure that any regulations we bring forward will provide suitable flexibility to account for this.
We continue to work with key partners, including Historic Environment Scotland, to support the best solutions to transition Scotland’s traditional buildings to be more energy efficient and to use clean heating systems while being sympathetic to their character and features.
We are investing over £300m in heat and energy efficiency programmes in 2025-26, including support for traditional properties.
We are also considering how we could provide for a more bespoke assessment of the technically-suitable energy efficiency and clean heating measures available for owners of traditional buildings.
- Asked by: Rhoda Grant, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Thursday, 27 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S6W-32079 by Gillian Martin on 18 December 2024, whether the marine and coastal restoration plan will take account of, and have regard to, other plans, in particular, the National Marine Plan and the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy.
Answer
Yes, the marine and coastal restoration plan will support delivery of policies and outcomes in the National Marine Plan, the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy, the UK Marine Strategy, and the Scottish Seabird Action Plan, amongst others.
- Asked by: Ariane Burgess, MSP for Highlands and Islands, Scottish Green Party
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Date lodged: Wednesday, 26 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what tools, including enforcement mechanisms, it has to ensure that the ban on single-use plastics, which commenced on 1 June 2022 under the Single-use Plastic Products (Scotland) Regulations 2021, is fully implemented; whether it has carried out a review of the effectiveness of the ban and if, (a) so, whether it will publish the findings and (b) not, what plans it has to do so.
Answer
Enforcement of the ban on single-use plastics is undertaken by local authority enforcement officers. Enforcement officers are authorised by local authorities to exercise powers in the Regulations in order to determine whether an offence is being committed. This includes the power to enter premises to investigate. The full powers are contained in Regulation 15.
Enforcement officers report cases to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, who are responsible for prosecuting the offences in the Regulations.
The Environmental Protection (Injurious Articles) (Fixed Penalty Notices and Miscellaneous Amendments) (Scotland) Regulations 2025 also make provision for a fixed penalty notice procedure in relation to offences under the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021.
Research into the implementation of the Environmental Protection (Single-use Plastic Products) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 is nearing completion and will be published in the near future.
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it supports calls for global debt cancellation to be a key pillar of the UN Loss and Damage Fund, ensuring that climate-vulnerable nations are not required to take on more debt to recover from climate disasters.
Answer
Scotland remains committed to being a leader and bridge builder on climate justice. This includes by convening and influencing at international events, to champion climate justice and amplify Global South voices.
We have previously incorporated debt justice within our climate justice advocacy positions: advocating prior to, during and after COP29 for a proportion of the UNFCCC Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage to be ringfenced so as to make finance directly available to communities in the form of grants, not loans. As a government we are currently scoping opportunities to increase the strength and reach of our advocacy on the issue of the global climate debt crisis, including at key upcoming international events.
- Asked by: Nicola Sturgeon, MSP for Glasgow Southside, Scottish National Party
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 25 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to support calls for debt justice for any countries that are required to take on debt to recover from climate disasters and climate-related loss and damage.
Answer
Scotland remains committed to being a leader and bridge builder on climate justice. This includes by convening and influencing at international events, to champion climate justice and amplify Global South voices.
We have previously incorporated debt justice within our climate justice advocacy positions: advocating prior to, during and after COP29 for a proportion of the UNFCCC Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage to be ringfenced so as to make finance directly available to communities in the form of grants, not loans. As a government we are currently scoping opportunities to increase the strength and reach of our advocacy on the issue of the global climate debt crisis, including at key upcoming international events.
- Asked by: Pam Gosal, MSP for West Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Monday, 31 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Kaukab Stewart on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to mandate that data on sex be collected by default in all research and data collection that it or its non-departmental public bodies commission.
Answer
The Office of the Chief Statistician published guidance for public bodies in Scotland on the collection of data on sex and gender in 2021. This guidance recommends that statistics producers should collect data (for operational, statistical and research purposes) that best serves the needs of users in their specific context, an approach with aligns with the guidance published by the Office for Statistics Regulation in 2024.
- Asked by: Monica Lennon, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 April 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Neil Gray on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what it is doing to improve the early detection and prevention of liver disease.
Answer
The Scottish Government is supporting the development of UK-wide clinical guidelines on alcohol treatment which will be published this year, and is also committed to publishing a service specification for alcohol treatment and recovery. The clinical guidelines and service specification will set out the need for early detection and prevention of alcohol-related liver disease. Implementation of early detection will build on existing pilot initiatives and services already commissioned in local areas.
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Jamie Hepburn on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether the practice of the Lord Advocate and/or Solicitor General attending meetings of the Cabinet is still in place; how many meetings one or both have attended in each of the last 10 years; what their current remit is when attending meetings, and whether the current arrangements are substantively the same, or different, to the arrangements under the previous two First Ministers.
Answer
The Scottish Law Officers are not members of the Scottish Cabinet. Consistent with long standing practice, the Lord Advocate (or, in their absence, the Solicitor General) attends Cabinet meetings whenever it is required. In practice this means when Cabinet is discussing a matter with a legal aspect, or to represent their own Ministerial interest, in particular as head of the systems of criminal prosecution and investigation of deaths in Scotland.
The following table sets out, for each of the previous 10 years, the number of occasions on which the Scottish Law Officers have attended meetings of the Scottish Cabinet.
YEAR (and total number of Cabinet meetings (mtgs.) held) | No. of Cabinet meetings attended by Scottish Law Officers |
2015 (40 mtgs) | 14 |
2016 (34) | 17 |
2017 (38) | 28 |
2018 (38) | 35 |
2019 (41) | 41 |
2020 (50) | 50 |
2021 (41) | 35 |
2022 (41) | 27 |
2023 (39) | 24 |
2024 (41) | 27 |
2025 (12) as at 1 April | 5 |
- Asked by: Paul Sweeney, MSP for Glasgow, Scottish Labour
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Fiona Hyslop on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what community benefit requirements have been included in the contract for the Small Vessel Replacement Programme under the terms of the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.
Answer
CMAL has confirmed that it included two strands of community benefit commitments in its contract with Remontowa. The first provides opportunity for three Scotland-based shipbuilding apprentices per vessel, 21 in total, to attend optimisation and sea trials for training purposes when the vessels are delivered. The second is that Remontowa shipyard will match CMAL’s funding for its Corporate Social Responsibility programme over the course of the build, which supports charity initiatives across local communities in the Clyde and Hebrides region.
- Asked by: Alexander Burnett, MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
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Date lodged: Friday, 28 March 2025
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Current Status:
Answered by Alasdair Allan on 17 April 2025
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will consider changing the eligibility criteria for the Home Energy Scotland grant to install a heat source pump, to allow one application per homeowner regardless of this being their main residence, in order to bring this in line with the equivalent UK Government grant.
Answer
The Scottish Government, at present, has no plans to review the eligibility criteria of the Home Energy Scotland Grant and Loan Scheme, which sets out that funding is reserved for primary private residences only.